The IRS has refused to report how much money the “wealth squad” has brought in. This isn’t so difficult. Britain, which set up a similar “rich squad” around the same time, has announced that its squad netted £162 million ($ 263 million) in 2010-11, up from £82 million the year before. Those amounts are on top of the taxes already paid by the rich who are being targeted.
The IRS has declined comment on their amounts or to explain why it won’t release the numbers.
The IRS already has come under fire for a study that found that the 78 agents in the “global high wealth” group only audited two returns in 2010 and 11 in the first six months of fiscal 2011. That was far below its targets.
The IRS disputed the numbers, produced by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. The agency said the analysis was “incorrect,” but the agency didn’t give any alternative numbers.